Land rush for Port Hedland

The Pilbara town of Port Hedland is set to grow by a third after the West Australian government announced a $1.5 billion residential land release.

It is the latest effort from the state government to ease crippling housing shortages in the area and upgrade infrastructure and amenities in a bid to lure workers and investors to the booming region.

WA Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls said the 226-hectare project, called Western Edge, would provide much needed room to grow. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know Western Australia is under enormous pressure with huge population growth, faster than anywhere else in the nation,” Mr Grylls said.

Earlier this week, The Australian Financial Review revealed that international hotel chain Hilton Worldwide and a consortium of investors plans to build a $65 million luxury hotel in Karratha.

The 144-room four-star DoubleTree-brand hotel will also have 20 apartments, a restaurant and a gym.

Construction also commenced in Karratha this week on a high-rise apartment tower. Developer Finbar will build its second apartment complex in the town after the state government committed to buying 50 units.

Mr Grylls said the projects were proof that the state’s Pilbara Cities project, which is backed by $1 billion in government funding, was drawing developers to the region.

National developer Mirvac is developing a similar-sized land release – worth $1.5 billion – in Karratha, called Mulataga. Lend Lease and Australand also vied for the Mulataga project and are likely to be closely eyeing Western Edge.

The Port Hedland project will provide a master-planned community of 2300 dwellings over the next five to seven years, housing more than 5000 residents. The successful proponent will be chosen in the next four months.

WA LandCorp chief executive Ross Holt said Port Hedland was about 18 months behind Karratha in terms of land releases and attracting private investment, but it was catching up.

“I think it was three years ago there were about half a dozen [house] builders in the north-west . . . there’s 32 today,” Mr Holt said.

The median house price in Karratha has eased, falling 9 per cent since 2010 to $797,500. But house prices in Port Hedland continue to rise and are sitting at $830,000 according to the Real Estate Institute of WA.

About $1 billion is being spent to help Port Hedland and Karratha, and smaller Pilbara towns like Newman and Tom Price, to diversify their economy and attract new residents.

Despite WA’s desperate need for workers and a stream of research indicating Australians are not prepared to move to regional locations for work, population growth in the Pilbara is among the fastest in the nation.

The 2011 census shows that the population in the local government area, the Shire of Roebourne (which includes Karratha), grew by 39.4 per cent to 22,900 over the past five years.

Port Hedland grew 25.8 per cent over the same period, to just more than 15,000 residents, even while suffering housing constraints.

Mr Grylls said residents were seeing their towns transformed before their eyes.

“You have cities of 100,000 in Townsville and Cairns in Queensland – same climate, same challenges when they were developed, we’re just a few years behind.”

The Australian Financial Review

BY Natalie Gerritsen

Natalie writes about WA politics and state issues from our
Perth bureau.